Improvement in metallic fence-post



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

VILLIAM A. MIDDLETON, OF HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMEN"I IN METALLIC FENCE-POST.

Specification :ibrlning part ot' Letters Patent No. 86,935, dated February 16,1869.

To all whom vit 'may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM A. MIDDLE- TON, of the city of Harrisburg, county of Dauphin, and State of Pennsylvania have invented a new and Improved Metallic Fence-Post; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation of the saine, reference being had to the annexed drawing, making a part of this specification, which is a perspective ot' the post with the ends of panels inserted in it.

I construct my metallic fence-post in such form as to secure the greatest strength and stability with the least expenditure ot' metal, and suited to be screwedinplace, directly into the soil, without the aid of hole-boring or piledriving machines, being thus adapted to the wants of the countryr where neither wood nor stone can be readily obtained.

The shaft or upper part of the post has inortises for the insertion of the rails, as usual, and the outline of the edge of the post is sealloped, the scallops sweeping` around the mortises l 2 3 4 5. Said shaft of the post is bifurcated below, or has a long slender loop, m up, whosetines n 11 run down inside of spiral screwthreads, and are massed with said threads. The loop m a p is so made as to give the butt of the post an enlarged bulk, about the usual size of a good wooden post-butt, and is, moreover, so shaped as to form a skeleton gixnletscrew.

The threads s s s are distant enough to cut into the soil without breaking the soil that lies between the threads in the act of screwing it down to its place in the soil.

The skeleton form is, moreover, of use to enable stones or pebbles to pass from the sharp cutting-edges of the threads, and to be forced either up or down from the track of the threads, or to be lodged in the hollow inside of the screw.

The advantages of this mode of constructing post-butts are, first, the skeleton form secures stability against the action of wind and frost; second, the butt can be inserted in an ordinary post-hole and loaded with fragments of rock, and thus, when soil is filled into the interstiees, the post will be anchored down; third, this post will ontlast Inost all the species of wood that can be obtained in our country, and is therefore cheap intrinsically.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is

A metallic fence-post provided with the soil or skeleton screw m n p s, constructed and arranged substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

wILLrAu A. MIDDLE'roN.

Witnesses THEorHILUs WEAVER, R. J. FLEMING. 

